Not that I have any intention of ever seeing “50 Shades of Grey” because..why? One thing I’ve learned over the years as one who treks, stumbles, and persists ever onward through the minefields of the artist’s life in this modern (?) world, is that what is popular is not always what is good. Or even moderately tolerable. And that’s putting it mildly. The ratings are in the toilet, but nobody cares because hey, look over there, it’s bondage.

The current TV sensation “Empire” is another example (in my humble opinion) of a show that is a poorly written, shallow effort. It is crippled by amateurish plot and character development seasoned with embarrassingly juvenile dialogue delivered by some great actors who simply cannot overcome. I could see how bad the show was going to be from a mile away just from the previews. What I couldn’t see was that “Empire” would nevertheless wind up a hit and that so many thousands of viewers – some of them my friends – would anoint the program as a runaway favorite. My prayer was that viewers would run away from the program in droves, but we don’t always get what we pray for. Now it looks like we’ll be blessed with even more shows like this. Diversity deserves better in my opinion, but it wouldn’t be the first time my opinion was in the minority.

So back to 50 Shades, where diversity doesn’t even factor in. There was this short piece from Fortune magazine which reads as follows:

Looks like Fifty Shades of Grey is more popular than Jesus.

Monday estimates for Universal Focus’ Fifty Shades of Grey show the movie earned $85 million on its Valentine’s Day and President’s Day weekend debut. The racy romance movie topped the Passion of the Christ’s previous $83.8 million February weekend box office record, which it held since 2004, according to Deadline.

Notably, estimates from other sources stated that the movie failed to live up to Passion’s opening earnings. The New York Post, for example, cited an $81.7 million figure for Fifty Shades on Monday. Official numbers are due later this week.

While the adaptation of the erotic romance novel cashed in more than Mel Gibson’s movie about Jesus Christ’s last hours on earth, it’s not Universal’s best weekend opening ever. Both 2013’s Fast & Furious 6($97.4 million and 2011’s Fast Five ($86.2 million) made more.

Truthfully (if that matters) I don’t know if Jesus-loses-out-to-bondage is actually the message here because, well, who knows if Jesus would have even liked that movie. Because truthfully (again, only if it matters) that movie was pretty sorry too. Seriously. Plus, are the box office dollar signs the only meter that matters?